What an experience at Emaus for our first gathering to promote Abbot Francis! We had around 2000 people who came to pray Abbot Francis for special graces. Yes, people are confirming that the spirit of Abbot Francis is here at Emaus. Let us share this news about Abbot Francis and Emaus.

Priest of SA-founded order a martyrThe Southern Cross, February 10 to February 16, 2016

A priest of an order that was founded in South Africa will be beatified as a martyr to Nazism.

Fr Engelmar Unzeitig, who has been called “Angel of Dachau”, belonged to the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries, an order founded by Abbot Franz Pfanner in 1909 in KwaZulu-Natal.

A young priest with Czech roots serving in Germany and Austria, Fr Unzeitig was arrested by the Nazis on April 21, 1941.

His crime? Preaching against the Third Reich from his pulpit, particularly against their treatment of Jews. He encouraged his congregation to be faithful to God and to resist the lies of the Nazi regime.

As punishment, Fr Unzeitig was sent to what has been called the “largest monastery in the world”: Dachau concentration camp, near Munich, which became renowned for the number of ministers and priests within its walls.

The camp housed some 2700 clergy, about 95% of whom were Catholic priests, making it one of the largest residences for priests in the history of the Church.

Fr Unzeitig was just 30 years old, and two years ordained, when he was sent to Dachau. Born in 1911 as Hubert Unzeitig in Greifendorf, in what is now the Czech Republic, Fr Unzeitig joined the seminary at the age of 18 and became a priest for the Mariannhill Missionaries, whose motto is: “If no one else will go: I will go.” There he was given the religious name Engelmar.

While imprisoned in the concentration camp, he studied Russian in order to be able to help the influx of prisoners from Eastern Europe, and had a reputation at the camp as a holy man.

Treatment of the priests and ministers at Dachau was unpredictable— sometimes they were allowed to worship, at others they were severely treated. On one particular Good Friday, dozens of priests were selected for torture to mark the occasion.

For several years, Fr Unzeitig was able to remain in relatively stable health despite the poor treatment he received. However, when a wave of the often-fatal typhoid fever swept through the camp in 1945, he and 19 other priests volunteered to do what no one else wanted to: care for the sick and dying in the typhoid barracks, an almost-certain death sentence in and of itself.

He and his companions spent their days bathing and caring for the sick, praying with them and offering last rites.

On March 2, 1945, Fr Unzeitig succumbed to typhoid fever himself.

Pope Francis officially acknowledged Fr Unzeitig as a martyr who died as a result of hatred of the faith, which opens the path for his beatification, the next step in becoming a canonised saint.—CNA

A great and most joyful news for the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill!
Our Fr. Engelmar Unzeitig’s martyrdom has been officially approved by Pope Francis on 21/01/2016, which means that he will be beatified soon. He died in a concentration camp in 1945,
Let’s pray through his intercession for our needs.